The present invention relates to pick-up caps which are mountable on pick-up truck boxes and serve to provide an enclosure for passengers and articles to be carried. More specifically, the present invention relates to an improved pick-up cap construction which includes a fiberglass reinforced plastic molded shell body having a top and downwardly protruding sidewalls. The present invention is particularly directed to improving three aspects of such pick-up cap constructions, namely:
(i) the arrangement for attaching the pick-up cap sidewalls to the pick-up truck box sidewalls; PA0 (ii) the construction of the opening and access door at the rear of the truck body; and PA0 (iii) the sealing connection between the front open end of the pick-up cap and the rear of a pick-up driver cab.
Various types of holddown devices have been proposed for holding pick-up caps on the pick-up box sidewalls, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,356,408 to Stutz; U.S. Pat. No. 3,455,573 to Magers; U.S. Pat. No. 3,475,049 to Overhulser; U.S. Pat. No. 3,536,352 to Beckley; U.S. Pat. No. 3,540,772 to Weiler; U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,601 to Robbins; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,231,610 to Stoll. However, prior contemplated arrangements have not been satisfactory in all respects as to the appearance of the assembled pick-up cap and pick-up truck body, the ease of assembling the pick-up cap, the manufacturing cost for the connection assembly, the durability and reliability of the pick-up cap so as to accommodate multiple attachment and detachment, as well as the forces experienced during in-use, on road conditions. Further, such prior constructions have not been entirely satisfactory in obtaining a sufficiently firm and durable connection of the pick-up cap and the pick-up truck sidewalls so as to facilitate and maintain a firm sealing of the pick-up cap forward end against the rear of the pick-up driver cab.
According to one aspect of the invention, these problems of holding down the sidewalls of the pick-up cap are solved by providing a holddown arrangement which includes an extruded metal rail having a base portion which lays over the top of the sidewall of the pickup box and a generally vertical portion which engages underneath and along the side of the lower portion of the pick-up cap sidewall. A second extruded metal part rail is disposed along the outside of the bottom of the pick-up cap sidewall which also includes a lower support portion in facing engagement with the mounting rail. Rivet or the like connecting means extend through the two extruded rails and the lower portion of the fiberglass shell body sidewalls to clamp the assembly together. The outer extruded rail includes a profile shape for accommodating the application of a further extruded plastic decorative strip which covers-up the connection between the sidewalls and provides for a very neat overall appearance of the pick-up truck and cap combination while also protecting the sidewalls against lateral bumps and the like. With this arrangement it is especially advantageous that a single extruded metal part serves to form one half of the rigid supporting clamp for the lower portion of the sidewalls, as well as serving to accommodate the decorative strip means. This construction, with extruded metal parts sandwichingly engaging and supporting from underneath the pick-up cap sidewalls, makes it possible to very rigidly clamp the pick-up cap to the pick-up box sidewall, thereby assuring maintenance of the compression seal between the front of the pick-up cap and the rear of the driver cab.
There have also been many rear door configurations proposed for pick-up caps of the type contemplated by the present invention. Most of these rear door configurations utilize the tail gate of the pick-up box as the lower portion of the door. However, there have been proposals for rear door constructions which extend from the pick-up cap downwardly to the pick-up truck box floor, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,099 to Mashingan. This last mentioned construction includes two doors arranged laterally beside one another, supported at respective vertically extended hinge posts protruding downwardly from the pick-up cap. The two-part door construction is relatively complex to construct and close manufacturing tolerances must be held to assure a good fit, which sometimes is not so easy to do with fiberglass molded shell bodies of the type under consideration. Furthermore, this last mentioned construction, with the requirement of hinge connections at both lateral sides of the rear opening, means that some lateral space in the lower region of the box is occupied by the hinge construction and support, thereby making the lateral width of the opening into the pick-up box narrower than the normal separation distance of the sidewalls of the pick-up box.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, a rear-door construction is provided for a pick-up cap which overcomes the above-noted disadvantages of the prior art arrangements. According to particularly preferred embodiments of the invention, the rear door is constructed as a single molded fiberglass reinforced plastic door which is supported by hinges extending horizontally along the top of the pick-up cap shell body. The rear door is configured to overlap and abuttingly engage with seal means provided at the lateral edges of the pick-up box opening and the pick-up shell rear opening, so that maximum access from the rear is easily provided. Furthermore, a rigid and durable support of the rear door is provided by means of metal extrusions and frame members disposed around the top of the pick-up cap shell body and top of rear door, which must be provided in any event with support for the roof portion so that additional materials and construction costs are minimized, while still obtaining the benefit of a single large fully openable rear door.
According to particularly preferred embodiments, the rear door construction includes a profile member along the outside thereof corresponding to the profile for the protective decorative strip of the sidewalls, such that a protective strip can also be provided at the rear door which conforms with the sidewall protective strip and protective moldings, again providing for a very economical and pleasant appearing overall construction. According to especially preferred embodiments, the extruded metal profile member which serves for holding the decorative strip across the rear door, also serves for the mounting of the handle and latching mechanism. In this way, a minimal number of constructional parts and construction steps are required for manufacturing the pick-up cap arrangement.
There have been previously proposed sealing arrangements between the front of pick-up cap shell bodies and the like and the rear of a pick-up driver cap, such as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,840,266 to Carlson and U.S Pat. No 3,897,100 to Gardner. However, with the elastic seal of the above-noted Carlson '266 patent there are disadvantages in that the use of adhesive limits the number of changes that can be made and it is in any event required that tne pick-up cap be compressively pushed against the seal. The mechanisms of the Carlson '266 patent fail in practice to adequately provide such a compression connection. According to the Gardner '100 patent, there is a bulk-head provided which has a detachable latch to accommodate quick attachment and detachment of the slidable rail mounted pick-up cap shell body. In Gardner, there is a seal provided between the pick-up cap and the bulkhead, however the fixed position latching of the pick-up cap at the bulkhead limits the possibilities for the application of the compressive force against the seal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,201, assigned to the assignee of the present application, discloses a double sealing arrangement, including an access door between the pick-up cap and the driver cab. Although this arrangement works very well in practice and is very advantageous when one utilizes an access door extending from the bottom of the pick-up door box, it is not optimally applicable to instances where a simple open-ended shell body is to be used which engages against the rear of the driver cab.
According to a further aspect of the invention, a fluid and air tight compression sealed construction is provided between the forward open end of the pick-up shell body and the rear of the pick-up driver cab, which compression seal arrangement is especially advantageous when used in conjunction with the above-mentioned novel holddown mechanism of the present invention, assuring maintenance of a tight compression fit.
These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, several embodiments in accordance with the present invention.